When a person’s heart stops beating, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is the procedure that can help save their life. When the heart stops, it cannot continue pumping blood to the body’s organs. When your heart stops beating, you suffer from cardiac arrest and then you require CPR.
During cardiac arrest, the heart stops because of altered electrical signals. Some people believe that cardiac arrest and a heart attack are the same, but they are different heart problems. With a heart attack, the blood flow to the heart stops because of blocked arteries, requiring immediate medical attention. However, they are in danger of cardiac arrest, which means the heart may stop pumping blood, placing the person at immediate risk of death within a few minutes unless they receive CPR.
A person in cardiac arrest is usually unconscious, and they are either not breathing at all or are not breathing normally. Both indicate that CPR is required immediately but always performed after calling for emergency help first. But how does CPR restart the heart? We’ll discuss more in this blog post.
Since most incidences of cardiac arrest occur in the home or place of work, CPR training teaches you how to help someone when they cannot breathe. No matter how close a hospital is, without CPR, their chance of surviving is almost zero.
What Your Organs Need to Survive
Life is impossible without oxygen, and it is essential for all organs and cells. The lungs are the organs that draw oxygen from the air that we breathe and then disperse it to the body’s other organs via red blood cells. These same cells remove carbon dioxide from our bodies as we exhale.
When a person is not breathing normally or at all, the lack of oxygen will damage all the vital organs, causing them to cease functioning. A lack of oxygen to the brain can lead to brain damage after just 4 minutes, and death follows soon after. CPR is used to replenish the victim’s oxygen levels until help arrives.
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What is CPR?
In any emergency where someone is not breathing normally or is in cardiac arrest, CPR is a set of techniques used to help save their life. CPR includes:
- chest compressions
- rescue breathing (mouth-to-mouth)
During CPR, blood circulation is maintained, delivering oxygen to the organs until emergency services arrive. Failure to provide oxygen and blood flow to the organs will result in organ failure, eventually leading to death or long-term injuries. If CPR is not provided quickly, there is a higher chance of death.
Having the knowledge of basic emergency first aid and CPR can give a person in need a chance of survival.
How CPR Works
CPR combines chest compressions and rescue breaths performed on a person in cardiac arrest. The two techniques, when used together, allow the person performing the CPR to take over the role of the person’s heart and lungs, sending oxygen and blood flow to the brain and other vital organs.
That means that the breathing and chest compressions pump oxygen in the blood around the body. Even without rescue breaths, chest compressions alone can still increase a person’s chance of survival. By providing chest compressions and rescue breaths, you can restart the heart.
Performing CPR until professional help arrives or the person starts to regain consciousness is essential. CPR is exhausting, and if there is someone to help you, take turns. You will know when a person has regained consciousness if they open their eyes, cough, speak, move, and are breathing normally. Stop CPR and place them in a recovery position until help arrives.
If you want to ensure a person’s survival, every second of CPR counts, so start the life-saving procedure immediately after calling for emergency help.
Even though anyone can perform CPR, formal training allows you to complete it confidently. CPR training also includes learning how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) to shock the heart back to beating normally.
Learn How to Provide CPR
Knowing how to help someone in an emergency can make the difference between life and death for the person. Training in first aid and CPR can help increase a person’s chance of survival until emergency help arrives.
Take a life-saving CPR course with Coast2Coast today and receive your certification. The blended course combines online and in-class learning. The duration of the online section for CPR/AED Level C is 2-3 hours, and the in-class training is 3.5 hours.
On completion, you receive your Canadian Red Cross Certification within 5-10 business days, valid for 3 years, after which recertification is available. Recertification is also held in a blended format, requiring 2 hours of online training and 2.5 hours of in-class training.
Coast2Coast offers CPR certification and recertification training at several facilities across greater Toronto, like Mississauga, Brampton, etc; Western Ontario, and Eastern Ontario.
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